Questions About Jane Austen at Home

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I've read Claire Tomalin's definitive biog of JA and can't imagine how any other historian could have anything new or more to say on such an elusive writer. I'd appreciate thoughts by anyone who's read both?

Renuka I read them one after the other (Worsley first because I got it first) and naturally liked the more comprehensive Tomalin better.
However there were a…moreI read them one after the other (Worsley first because I got it first) and naturally liked the more comprehensive Tomalin better.
However there were aspects that Worsley got better and I would read them both again.
As much as we never get to know a real life person 'completely' because, as Elizabeth Bennet says, people themselves keep changing so much, a different biography does give a different aspect that one had not / would not have seen or considered before / otherwise.
Worsley for example gives a list of Jane Austen admirers & suitors that Tomalin completely ignores or misses or discounts.
Worsley also writes from a completely different viewpoint it's almost like about a differnet person. Her focus is Jane in different places - thematically its location based with attendant influences. I found this aspect useful. Worsley can however be a little sweeping, a little superficial - more broad strokes.
Tomalin gives the classic biography - deeply researched and focused on the person as an individual and within a group - there isn't however the focus on the location impact to the extent Worsley gives. That said Tomalin one is better. So it's your call. (less)

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